OMAHA, Neb. -- Now that Villanova has made it 2 for 2 in winning regular-season championships in the “new” Big East, the Wildcats have some more goals in mind as they head into March.
Of course, Wildcats coach Jay Wright will tell you that...

The stability of The Associated Press Top 25 these past several weeks blew up during a tumultuous week of big victories and upsets.
Kentucky, Division I's only undefeated team, remained entrenched at No. 1 after two routs. The Wildcats (29-0) were a...

Villanova coach Jay Wright says JayVaughn Pinkston "is doing the best he can" to adhere to the conditions of the program the player must conclude satisfactorily to have his record expunged in connection with a 2010 fight at an off-campus party.
But Pinkston, the Wildcats' senior forward and co-captain, has not fulfilled the terms of a judge's order requiring 375 hours of community service and payment of more than $11,000 in restitution and court costs and probably won't be able to do so until after his...

CINCINNATI Before the first whistle even sounded Saturday in the Cintas Center, Villanova officially had captured the Big East regular-season championship. But the sixth-ranked Wildcats wanted to put an exclamation point on the achievement against Xavier.
The Cats stunned the excited sellout crowd of 10,250 in the second half by rallying from a nine-point deficit, limiting the Musketeers to one 3-point basket and 32 percent shooting, and rolling to a 78-66 victory, their 10th consecutive win.
The...

CINCINNATI — Kris Jenkins' back-to-back 3-pointers started a late run that rallied No. 6 Villanova to its 10th straight victory on Saturday, 78-66 over Xavier.
The Wildcats (27-2, 14-2 Big East) made five 3s — their specialty — during a 17-7 spurt for their only substantial lead of the game. Jenkins had 14 points to go with Dylan Ennis' team-high 16.
The winning streak is Villanova's second-longest in Big East regular season play, trailing an 11-game streak in 2005-06. The Wildcats...

At the time, Fran Dunphy could feel the wave coming, and only in retrospect did he see a way to keep it from crashing upon him and those Kansas coaches and players along the sideline at the Wells Fargo Center.
This was Dec. 22. Dunphy took a timeout with Temple leading the No. 10-ranked Jayhawks by 27 points and with 50 seconds left in regulation, the Owls' 77-52 victory a formality. Already, the Temple players were lining up near the scorer's table, juiced and ready to celebrate their upset, and already...

Sure, there's plenty of lacrosse left to be played this season. But this weekend brings us five games — we'll call them "barometer games" — that could determine a team's direction the rest of the season.
The games will gauge the quality of the teams involved. Will they be contenders or pretenders?
The time to jell is now. Can they do it?
No. 1 Denver at No. 4 North Carolina
Friday, 4 p.m., ESPNU
Denver is looking for its first NCAA lacrosse title. The Pioneers beat No. 6 Duke, 17-13,...

VILLANOVA, Pa. Villanova hadn't lost at the Pavilion in a little over 2 years.
The last team to beat the Wildcats on the Main Line was Providence, which happened to be their on-campus opponent Tuesday night, in the final game there for seniors JayVaughn Pinkston and Darrun Hilliard. Both were honored before tipoff. They still have one more home game, the regular-season finale on March 7 at the Wells Fargo Center against resurgent St. John's.
They can only hope it unfolds nearly as well as this one did....